hello there

You've reached the website of η (eta), a person who programs stuff. And, also, writes stuff (usually about programming). The editors of this website would like to advise readers to stay away from non-programming related utterances, by the way.

Readers should also note that η, although described as a programmer and writer, only rarely partakes in either activity, as evidenced by the dates provided next to all information below. (However, the dates are at least formatted with ISO 8601.)

Anyhow. Below, you should find various lists, which will attempt to describe me and my activities - a method that should prove more efficient than reading this rather obfuscated introductory paragraph.
(You may also want to read the small print at the bottom of the page!)

'recent' blog posts (see all)

• 2018-03-31

  Getting rotary encoders working with an Arduino Uno

  I’ve been doing a bunch of stuff with an Arduino Uno recently. In particular, one of those things is trying to get an incremental rotary encoder (in my case, an ALPS STEC11B04) working with the Uno. I thought this would be a simple task - wire it up, write some code, and it’s all good. Oh, how wrong I was. [read more]

• 2018-03-03

  On zealotry

  I’m a self-confessed zealot about many things. Being a proud member of the Rust Evangelism Strike Force (occasionally abbreviated as R.E.S.F.), I tend to exude a lot of waffly enthusiasm about the Rust programming language to anyone that will listen, if we’re talking about something programming-related. (No, I don’t (yet) start talking about Rust in the middle of everyday conversation¹). I am of the opinion that, if most pieces of software were to be rewritten in Rust, the world would be a better place.

  1. The exception to this rule is if someone mentions ‘rust’ (i.e. iron(III) oxide), where I can’t resist throwing in a ‘fearless concurrency’ in response, because I like making awful puns. ↩
  [read more]

• 2018-02-07

  Replacing Google Play Services with microG - without reflashing

  I have an Android phone. This is, in my opinion, vastly superior to the other major alternative of having an Apple phone, for a variety of reasons which could fill an entire other blog post. However, there are some downsides - primarily, the major one is having to rely on Google Play Services to provide a whole bunch of useful functionality, like push notifications. [read more]

projects

• osm-signal - An experimental project to work out level crossing opening times, using Network Rail's open data. [last updated c. 2018-05-31]
• mx-xkcd-ng - A hastily-assembled Matrix chatbot that pulls comics from xkcd, amongst other things. [last updated c. 2018-05-29]
• matrix-appservice-sms - A single-user Matrix.org Application Service (AS) that bridges SMS messages through to Matrix, using a USB 3G modem. [last updated c. 2018-05-29]
• Glitch in the Matrix - A series of matrix.org bindings for Rust. [last updated c. 2018-05-29]
• huawei-modem - An in-development AT modem library for Rust (...whose name will probably be changed soon to avoid infringing trademarks...) [last updated c. 2018-05-24]
• SQA - An audio application for live theatre productions, written in Rust. [last updated c. 2017-11-18]
• devilish-d20 - A Matrix chatbot to play D&D. (Hacky, but kind of works...) [last updated c. 2017-04-07]
• inebriated - A Markov chains chatbot, implemented in many different languages. [last updated c. 2016-02-27]
• Ultimate Wolfgame - (old, abandoned) An implementation of the popular party game Werewolf. [last updated c. 2015-11-14]
• capybara - (old, abandoned) A small program to display a desktop toolbar, written in C. [last updated c. 2015-08-03]
• [also see github]

proficiencies

• I'm an avid Rustacean (i.e. user of the Rust programming language), and program mainly in that.
• I also know a fair amount of C, although this has likely deteriorated given disuse.
• Web design, I guess? I mean, I know enough to get by, although I wouldn't exactly call this website a masterpiece. ^{(It also is just a heavily modified version of the jekyll templates...)}
  • At least this iteration of the website doesn't use 3 different external libraries, like the previous one did.
• I used to know quite a bit about JavaScript, and I could probably program some stuff using it. However, I'm by no means a JavaScript developer, and I don't have any knowledge whatsoever of modern web development standards. ^{(If, indeed, those even exist.)}

contact this person

η (eta)
• Email: hi@theta.eu.org
• Mastodon: @eta@chaos.social
• GitHub: eeeeeta
• ~eeeeeta on tilde.town